Lynn Hickey passes away at age 74

[XDCX]

While I never met Mr. Hickey or called on his dealership, his name was one which I had heard countless times over the years. I was catching up on some reading and read that Mr. Lynn Hickey passed away recently. He was 74 years old. :(

The report in Automotive News indicated that Hickey got his start in the car business by washing cars at a Ford Dealership and bought his Dodge store in 1970. With the gas-crisis of 1973-74 and Chrysler's near-death experience in 1979 I'm sure Mr. Hickey faced a number of challenges.

Here's a link to the story in Automotive New - click here (http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121228/RETAIL07/121229924/lynn-hickey-former-oklahoma-city-dodge-dealer-dies)

I liked one of the comments from a current Chrysler Dealer who contacted Mr. Hickey back in 1994 to buy some Ram Trucks. As before, I never met the man but it sounds like Mr. Hickey was a genuine "car guy" who wasn't too big or too successful to help out another dealer.

[steve_biegler]

http://www.mercer-adams.com/sitemaker/sites/Mercer1/obit.cgi?user=845185Hickey

I recall bidding against, I think his son, at Big Sky auto auction in Billings MT. One time we were buying 4cyl crank window Dynasty's. He was buying all of them, I think there were around 90 in the sale. After losing to the first ten I walked over and talked to him, told him I only wanted 4 of them. He asked what colors I wanted and said the next ones that came through that matched I could have. We were the only 2 bidding on the 4cyls so the prices came down about 600.00 per car (a lot back then). On the last car I bought the auctioneer just stopped and asked "who gets this one?" Mr Hickey just pointed at me. On the way to the airport I got a chance to talk to him for a little while. The way they marketed those cars was, high mileage bad color cars at one price, low mileage bad colors next price step, high mile good colors next then the low mile good colors the highest. He said they would move most of them in one weekend. Very nice guy! Saved me about 2500.00, I'm not sure how much he saved, it was a bunch!

[XDCX]

Steve,

Great story and thanks for the link to Mr. Hickey's webpage. :)

I still remember the old Four Cylinder Dynastys. As I recall Chrysler's minivans were so hot back then that there was a shortage of V6 engines and a lot of the Dynastys that were headed to the rental fleets were being build with Chrysler's trusty 2.5 liter Four Cylinder.

I might be mistaken, but I think I remember seeing a Dodge Dyansty with a Four Cylinder engine and a Five Speed Transmission. That would be the quintessential "ad unit." :rolleyes:

Concerning your auction experience with Mr. Hickey that's a great story and represents an era I think a lot of Chrysler dealers still look back on fondly. Chrysler may not have had the best products back in the 1990s but Auburn Hills was focused on selling cars and most of Chrysler's dealers were making good money.